I came across VentureBeat’s coverage of AdInfuse, which apparently is taking phone call data directly from carriers in order to create profiles of consumers that can be used for ad targeting. The VentureBeat article says that AdInfuse believes that consumers “will be less sensitive about privacy issues on phones”. Really? Consumers are already fairly insensitive about privacy online, but I struggle to see them being as freewheeling when it comes to a device that is physically with them at least two thirds of their lives. Mashable asks if scraping phone number records with a box at the carrier level leads to too creepy of an ad targeting solution. My position is, that the consumer should be made aware of the potential use of their data and should be asked to opt into it (not opt out). If it can lead to lower mobile phone bills or the freedom to get out of signing 2-year contracts to get the latest handset, many consumers will play along… but it should be their choice, fullstop.